This application claims benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-227287 filed on Aug. 5, 2002, the contents of which are incorporated by the reference.
The present invention relates to fixed amount sales systems and, more particularly, to a fixed amount sales system, which permits a customer in a gasoline stand or like shop to receive fuel supply or like service by specifying an amount of money.
A customer who wants to receive a fuel supply service in a gasoline stand or like shop, goes to the shop by driving his or her car. For the fuel supply in the shop, the fuel supply equipment is operated by a shop staff or by the customer himself or herself as self-service. At this time, in order to avoid payment and change return of small amounts of money and thus increase the process speed for both the customer and the shop, a fixed amount fuel supply service is provided.
Specifically, the customer preliminarily specifies a fixed amount of money, for instance 2,000 Yen, and then receives a fuel supply service corresponding to this amount. In this way, only payment of the constant amount (i.e., 2,000 yen in this case) is made between the customer and the shop, and no small amount of money is given or taken. Thus, it is possible to increase the process speed, which is a great merit for both the customer and the shop.
Among the prior art techniques in this technical field are, for instance, “Display Device” disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-211697, “Sales Data Processing System” disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-35972, “POS System” disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-119396, “Fuel Service Station” disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-194864, “Fuel Supply System,” disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-167395 and “Item Sales Apparatus” disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-324398.
In gasoline stands or like shops, however, it is ready to provide not only gasoline but also many, relatively inexpensive option items (i.e., TBA items) that maybe required by drivers, such as soft drinks, snack cakes, tobacco and chewing gum. To buy such items, the customer has to prepare changes for payment. No prior art technique shows a means for solving such problem. Therefore, the merits of the fixed amount fuel supply service can not be utilized, which is inconvenient for both the customer and the shop.